UFC President Dana White Addresses Issue of Fighters Being Passed Over for Title Shots
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 03.17.2013
White speaks on whether Pettis deserves his featherweight title shot...
At a media scrum following UFC 158, UFC President Dana White addressed the issue of fighters being passed over for potential title shots in favor of different match-ups such as Johny Hendricks who arguably should've gotten the shot against champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158. Instead, the shot was granted against Nick Diaz since GSP wanted the fight.
Also recently, UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was booked to fight Anthony Pettis in a featherweight title bout. Pettis makes his debut at featherweight in the bout and fights at featherweight, even though he arguably earned two shots to fight for the UFC lightweight title before. As a result, featherweight Ricardo Lamas gets passed over and will instead fight "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung later this year.
White on the the issue of fighters being passed over: "It's tough, man. It happens a lot. So was Pettis (passed over at one point). Some guys get trapped in a spot sometimes and it happens. I asked a bunch of fans the other day when I talked to them, 'Does anyone feel that Pettis, getting the 155-pound title shot, doesn't deserve the 145-pound title shot?' And everybody was like, 'No way, he deserves it,' and everyone wants to see it. It's like Johny Hendricks tonight. Johny Hendricks wanted that fight (with St-Pierre). The Condit-Hendricks fight should have happened. It happened tonight, and you can't f---ing deny the kid now that he deserves that No. 1 spot."
White on Ricardo Lamas: "If he fights the 'Zombie,' that's a high-profile fight that people are excited about, and we'll see what happens. And at the end of the day, if you truly believe you're the best in that division and you're going to win the title and hold it for a while, who gives a s---? You're going to end up fighting all these guys anyway, whether it's now or two years from now."
